Pages

March 30th: Special Day for Little Ones at Snoopy Museum Review & Weekend Events in Marin

The warm sunshine is finally here and it is starting to feel like spring time, so it’s great to get out and about to the parks, take a stroll round the farmers markets and go on family hikes through the Californian poppy flowers!

This week I review the “Museum Mondays for Little Ones’ at the Snoopy Museum in Santa Rosa which takes place once a month and is a fun day out!

A portrait of your little one makes a wonderful gift for a member of your family, photographer Kelly Baker will be doing a special 20 minutes portrait “mini-shoot” in the store and digital images will be available in time for Easter or Mother’s Day. Session fee: $60 for one child & $75 for siblings or parents/family.

On the fourth Monday of every month (through to September) the Charles M. Schultz Museum offers arts and crafts activities, stories and games for children ages 1 – 5 years old. We headed up to Santa Rosa to check it out last Monday, and had a great time!

From 10.00 am all the children and parents met in the downstairs gallery’s area and then were lead out to the sculpture garden where the group leader introduced the theme of the day, which was; “Spring is Here”. The children were asked to follow the Charlie Brown inspired zigzag path while looking at the colorful flowers and playing movement games like pretending to be flowers and trees in the breeze. The garden has great sculptures of the Peanuts characters which carry throughout the inside of the museum.

There were various arts and crafts stations set up throughout museum for the children to explore at their leisure. We started off at the potting table in the great hall, where the children could fill a lined box with soil, scratch the child’s first initial into the soil using a stick, and sprinkle grass seed into the scratched letter. If the child watered the letter every third day, soon we will be able to see the first letter of his or her name grow, and this can be transplanted into your garden at home!

Next, there was a table set up to create a “Paper Plate Daisy Mask”; the children were given paper plates with a hole cut out of the middle. The parents were asked to help the children cut petals from yellow and white paper and glue them to the perimeter of the plate to create a colored pattern. Buttons, foam and cotton could also be glued on to make different textures, and a yarn tied on to make a mask, so the child could put their face through the hole with the daisy petals surrounding their face, cute!

Next we headed upstairs to the Education Room where two arts and crafts activities were underway with a couple of tables of toys set up in the middle. “Create a Blooming Japanese Cherry Tree” table offered pieces of white paper with the outline of a tree printed on them. The children could use Dot–a-Dot paint markers to paint the trunk and branches of the tree, and then glue on scrunched up pieces of pink tissue paper to create the cherry blossom. The “Make Flowers Pop!” table encouraged children to take cardboard flowers which could be decorated with paint, markers or crayon and then glued onto colored card, and pipe cleaners created the flower’s stems.

Creating art with different textures and media provides a fun experience while improving fine motor practice for the little ones, they also make great pieces of art work to take home with you!

The Snoopy Ice Rink is located next door where you can enjoy a lunch inside the ‘Warm Puppy Café’ overlooking the ice rink. If it is a chilly day you can warm up to a Peppermint Patty hot chocolate by the fireplace. Also if you head over to the rink for 11.45 am on a week day you will be able to catch the Snoopy themed Zamboni machine circling the ice before the public skating starts at noon! Alternatively, if it is a sunny day you can enjoy lunch outside in the picnic area surrounded by sculptures of the Peanut characters.

‘Museum Mondays for Little ones’ offered a variety of fun activities for toddlers in addition to seeing the museum’s permanent and changing exhibits in an impressive, modern environment. Also having the ice rink and café just next door makes it a fun filled day out and worth the journey! The next one will be taking place Monday April 25th.

Mommy's Treats

At the Movies:

One of the best mind altering movies I have seen since the release of “Inception” is “Limitless” starring Bradley Cooper who takes a mind altering pill that allows him to use all areas of his brain (rather than the usual 20%). It turns his life around and he decides to take on Wall Street which catches the eye of a mega-mogul played by Robert De Niro. Highly recommended!

Out on DVD:

“Black Swan”; Natalie Portman gives a great Oscar winning performance in this drama about the psyche of a ballerina proving that she can be perfection while taking on the role of the Black Swan with harrowing results involving her rival played by Mila Kunis.

Our favorite couple, Mr. & Mrs. Tori Spelling are taking their event planning to a whole new level by giving couples a once in a lifetime experience for their special day.

Weekly Calendar of Ongoing

Toddler Activities in Marin

New Class!

“Jamaroo Kids Music & Movement” for ages 2 – 3 years old will take place on Tuesdays (March 29th – May 17th) at Terra Linda Community Center, 670 Del Ganado Road, San Rafael. Children will have the opportunity to play with a large variety of simple instruments, interact with puppets, use rhythm sticks, bean bags and streamers. The class is designed to promote cognitive development through the use of numbers, colors, shapes and letters. Visit their website; www.jamarookids.com

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

I am Sophie Davies; a Brit blogger, freelance writer, and PR Consultant who left London 5 years ago for a more balanced quality of life and to start a family in Marin, California.
This blog is about the things I am passionate about; home decor, design, fashion, books, websites, local restaurant reviews, play date ideas and family friendly events happening in the Bay Area. I also write articles on business owners offering an interesting service or new product line. If you want me to promote your company then contact me on sophialdavies@gmail.com